Had one lawyer as a client several years ago at AGE. Nice enough guy, and we started out ok, but he wasn’t quite the delegator that we all want in our good relationships. Ran with a high dollar crowd, had greater aspirations than his opportunities would allow, and then the real estate boom started here in FL. Started pulling $ out of the rollover to do condo flips, hit the timing right on the first 2 or 3, then liquidated the whole thing to run with the big dogs in that camp coming into '05, and promptly blew himself to pieces. No problems from him, but it was frustrating while it was going on.

Had another lawyer show up on my floor day years ago to do a medium sized rollover. Nice meeting, another ok guy, but then we start on the IRA paperwork and he totally blows a gasket on the arbitration clause. Starts striking paragraphs, writing in the margins, repeating the phrase “I’d never sign anything like this, or this, or this…” until I finally stopped him and said that I didn’t think we had much of a future together. Walked him to the front door, and that was that.

My experience with docs is much better. Dentists, family practitioners, pediatricians, psychs, and even veterinarians, all terrific delegators. Surgeons, on the other hand, not so much.

From my experience/perspective, attorneys, engineers and surgeons are not who I want to build a book around. I’ve had several engineers come to me through referrals, but I’m really upfront with them about how it’s important that they resist the urge to micromanage.

I have several doctors and a couple of lawyers. The only real common theme I see with this crowd, is they suck at returning your calls. These people are already clients, with a good size account, and they just don’t seem to care enough to call you back. I understand that some of these guys may just have a small piece of they’re finances with me, but C’mon! Can’t a brotha get a callback. I’m sure they’re probably super busy all day, or whatever, but its just impossible sometimes.

Had another lawyer show up on my floor day years ago to do a medium sized rollover. Nice meeting, another ok guy, but then we start on the IRA paperwork and he totally blows a gasket on the arbitration clause. Starts striking paragraphs, writing in the margins, repeating the phrase “I’d never sign anything like this, or this, or this…” until I finally stopped him and said that I didn’t think we had much of a future together. Walked him to the front door, and that was that.

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I had a retired judge do the exact same thing. My experience with Attorneys has been so bad that I don’t even consider them as potential clients. Part of it is watching a large practice sue some colleagues over BS. I’ve had good success with Doctors though. Picked up one as a client and he has referred me to everyone in his group.